Amsterdam

Spring in Amsterdam

[4 glasses of beer on the bar] With the advent of cheapo airlines many more places have fallen into economic range for the short break. Amsterdam is one such. It takes longer to purchase and drink a cup of coffee at Leeds Bradford Airport than the flight takes (a slight exaggeration but it was **** slow service at the coffee shop). Four of us (two couples for those who like to get such matters straight) were sat in the pub talking about how we all had thought about going, so we decided to!

Saturday 16th April

Beep beep. Beep beep. "Groan" 4 o'clock in the morning ("whose idea was this."). 5 o'clock drive to the airport. The rush, queue, stop, rush, queue, stop that is airport 'customer handling'. Up . . .Down, handled again and out. A word of warning for those with an adversity to walking, Schiphol airport is BIG! and guess where the cheapo flights get to disgorge their charges? Bus to our destination. 11 o'clock (10 o'clock GMT) checked in to our hotel and ready to go.

We had decided to stop in Haarlem which is a small town approx 12km to the west. Haarlem also has it's own beer style Jopenbier supposedly a recreated 16th century beer brewed for Haarlem's 750th anniversary, it went down so well it was kept brewing under contract in various versions. For anybody not wanting to go to Amsterdam for it's more notorious attractions I would highly recommend Haarlem, 20 mins train ride from Amsterdam and a bus (#300) from the airport every 6 minutes during the day. This is where we set out on our adventures - Haarlem market place in the rain, cheeses, smoked eels, fresh veg, dodgy batteries and flowers, vibrant bunches of tulips at 1/4 the price of UK florists and they put our puny dull clumps in the shade.

Train into Amsterdam and don't you think it's about time for a beer? The Belgiquie. 2 Gravenstraat just behind Dam Sqr. An excellent brown café, down a narrow ally this tiny, cramped little gem was excellent, beer choice mostly Belgian with a few Dutch, several dispensed from brightly polished fonts on the bar. Several beers and a cheese toastie later we wended our way onwards.

We elected not to get a crick in our necks and lighter wallets by travelling on a tourist barge to stare at canal walls but to walk around the city, so followed our guide (Graham with a guide book). Amsterdam has some very interesting architecture and with the trees in their fresh spring green it was pleasant to walk along the canals and look at the sites, the queue of tourists outside Anne Frank's house, a heron being fed on chicken skin thrown out of a kitchen window. Amsterdam is quite a compact city and most can be walked about. After such exercise in the fresh air it was decided, 'it's time for a beer.' We headed for Zotte (The Jester 29 Raamstraat) a little way from the busy bustling Leidseplein, this pleasant basic bar is where we decided to dine. Should you dine there and the food is very good - a tip, if there is a group of you order your food while sat at different table that way you get a bowl of chips on each table, it doesn't seem to matter if there is two, four, or six sat at the table the shared bowl of chips is the same size for the table.

Back to the station to see what Saturday night distractions Haarlem had to offer. Not before going via the famous Magere Brug as it was dusk and it would be all lit up and picturesque. We got there; no lights walking along Amstel (it's a canal not a very l-o-n-g grim lager) with the bridge receding behind, just as we were about to go around the corner out of sight they turned the lights on.

Back in Haarlm we decided to go in search of the Beiaard and Melkwood as the were both on the same straat 56 & 63 Zijlstraat. Beiaard is now closed. We were using 'Good Beer Guide to Belgium & Holland' by Tim Webb (the Belgium portion has been recently updated as a separate publication available directly from CAMRA) as our guide and it says about the Melkwood "The long bar and darkened saloon have some ancient attributes but a quiet jukebox is not one of them." there is not much else one can add but it did serve the Jopenbier.

Sunday 17th April

As today looked like being the nicest day of our trip we elected to go to the Keukenhof bulb show & fields at Lisse, it is a big showground for the Dutch bulb growers. If you are of a mind that you can bear to look at something other than a glass of beer and you are there at the right time of year this has to be worth a trip, or even, plan and go at the right time of year! An excellent day strolling along the displays trying to work out where all the "oh they're nice, shall we get some of them, we'd need at least a dozen to look right" multiplied n times would fit in a small suburban garden. fortunately the pain was removed from the decision as it is the wrong time of year for selling bulbs.

Click to enlarge images

Back in Haarlem, thirsty work those bulb fields, time for a beer. The Studio (25 Groote Markt), we had looked in on Saturday night but it had been too 'Saturday night' for old fuddy duddies like us, much more pleasant during the day, if still a little brash, but we could sit outside and watch people scaring themselves silly on the fairground version of a bungie jump and think "Why?" From the Tim Webb guide we tried to find Oude proef which appears to have vanished. Bruxelles (16 Lange Wijngaardstraat) which Tim asks for more reports on; we found very good. In Den Uiver (13 Riviervischmarkt) which Tim merely calls "delightfully ornate", we found absolutely excellent. It has very interesting architecture both inside and out, an intriguiging dark room panelled room with embossed leather wallpaperat the back, lots of historical aeronautical paraphernalia, (try saying that 10 times quickly on the way out) and the wood panelling was from the offices of the oldest newspaper in the world. The brasswork polished so highly when I tried to take a picture the reflected glare was so strong it over-exposed the shot, the beer choice not extensive (10 draught & 12 bottled) but some very interesting and unusual ones as well as as a wide choice of Jenevers and a number of whiskies. The owner who was an enthusiast and can spot a fellow enthusiast from 200 paces came over and told us about the place it's history and gave us a tour of the cellar, a very enjoyable evening.

Monday 18 April

Into Amsterdam Trish and Graham went to do the cultural things and visit the Van Gogh museum, we went shopping (these things have to be done) meeting up in a bar (where else) Beiaard (30 Spui). Arriving at Spui, "well it's round here somewhere, Oh there it is under that HUGE Grolsch sign", not a tempting view but OK on the inside and the snacks were good. The weather by this time was doing what Northern Europe weather is good at, we decided to look at another of Amsterdam's famous features, diamonds. We walked to a diamond merchants that was open to the public and were educated about diamonds colour, clarity, weight and shape but we decided the were just too awkward to carry home and didn't purchase any.

Being educated is thirsty work, time for a beer.. Gollem (4 Raamsteeg) a very good establishment well worth hunting out with a wide range of beers even if one does have to be a bit of a trapeze artist to go to the toilet.

One place we had to go according to Tim Webb supposedly the best beer café The Wildeman (3 Kolksteeg). On arrival we were approached by an English tourist who pointed at a sign on the door saying "Closed for Holiday. Reopen 19th April" and said
"Can you speak Dutch?"
"No"
Not taking no for an answer
"What does that say?"
"Perhaps it says Closed for Holiday. Reopen 19th April"

Are we unusual in taking our brains on holiday or are we wasting valuable souvenirs space? Anyway The Wildeman would have to be saved for another trip. Back to base and In Den Uiver.

Tuesday 19th April

A trip to the seaside. A North Sea seaside holiday resort in early April is a North Sea holiday resort in early April in any country so last resort draw a kindly veil over that. Back to Haarlem, Trish and Graham did culture again Frans Hals museum; we did shops. Another site well worth a visit is the church in the town square St. Bavo's in Haarlem, it looks more like a cathedral than a church and the organ is very impressive reputed to be second largest in Europe and played by Mozart and Handel. After all that culture, you guessed it... Last one of the trip.

Looking back my overall impression of Amsterdam: Van Gogh & tree lined canals, huge cheeses & funny smoke, tinkle of cycle bells as you're mown down from any direction & dog crap, ladies in shop windows & market stalls of brightly coloured tulips.

Ian & Anne Berry, Graham & Trish Cundall